Five Native American graduates in the WSU College of Medicine were honored in a special graduation ceremony hosted by WSU Native American Health Sciences (NAHS) and WSU Spokane Tuesday evening. The traditional Honoring Ceremony, also called a Blanketing Ceremony, recognized not only the graduates, but also their families and communities. This was the first campus-wide event to honor Native American graduates.
The evening started with an opening song, land acknowledgement, and prayer. Speakers included the deans from each of the WSU Spokane colleges, as well as remarks from tribal leaders and the NAHS Tribal Advisory Board. Organizers said the program was intentionally created to include tribal leadership and the families of the honorees because they all play an important role in supporting the graduates.
Native American enrollment and graduation rates have steadily increased within the WSU Health Sciences in the past five years. Leadership from the College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, and the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences credit inclusive policies, pathway programs, and funding to support Native students.
Native representation in the health sciences is critical to provide quality care to those who need it in traditionally underserved populations in Washington. Research shows that health care outcomes are improved when the patient receives care from someone who shares a similar background.
As a community-based medical school, the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine is committed to these efforts. During the event, Dean James Record, MD, JD, FACP, spoke about the importance of listening to the communities in which we serve and the exciting prospect of seeing these graduating students increase access to quality health care.
Record was followed by Class of 2023 graduate Raven Burns, MD. Burns was the first Native American to graduate with a Doctor of Medicine from WSU. He couldn’t attend this year’s ceremony in person because he is currently in the first year of residency in San Antonio, but he sent a recorded message.
“Remember the impact you have had and will have on the health of others,” said Burns. “You are the future of medicine.”
The ceremony honored three graduates from the MD Program and two from Speech and Hearing Sciences. The graduates include:
Doctor of Medicine
- Jasmine Birch, Iroquois
- Maria Jones, Choctaw
- Shelby Koch, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
Speech and Hearing Sciences
- Hannah Smith, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
- Hailey Weeks, Tolowa Dee-ni Nation
Shelby Koch was present at the ceremony and received the traditional blanketing with her family by her side. After graduation, Koch will complete her residency in family medicine at the Puyallup Tribal Health Authority in Tacoma, one of the only tribal-run residency programs in the U.S.
“I hope to serve tribal communities during my whole career,” said Koch.
Koch joins her classmates Jasmine Birch and Maria Jones as the first Indigenous women to graduate from the WSU College of Medicine MD Program.